The stunning £86m Arsenal transfer rumour that has Gunners fans in a frenzy

Arsenal have, historically speaking, had a pretty mixed time when it comes to Swedes. The Scandinavian people, not the root vegetable. For every Freddie Ljungberg in the Gunners’ past, there is a Kim Kallstrom - and soon, there in the hazy future of the summer transfer window and beyond, there could be a Viktor Gyokeres too.

The common consensus, according to various notepad-toting folks who are paid to know such things, is that Arsenal are extremely keen on signing a striker in the coming months, and that the striker they would like to sign more than all the other strikers is the striker who has been running through the Portuguese top flight like a dose of salts this season.

Some numbers, for context; Gyokeres signed for Sporting CP from the people’s FA Cup finalists, Coventry City, for a fee of around £18.1 million last year. Since then, he has scored 38 goals and assisted 16 more in just 45 outings across all competitions, and currently averages a goal every 99 minutes in Lisbon. He now has a release clause of around £86.3 million written into his contract on the continent. That figure is understood to be non-negotiable.

Alongside Arsenal, various other Premier League heavyweights have been touted as prospective suitors for the 25-year-old, with Chelsea, Manchester United, and, in a much less crisper sense, Liverpool all mentioned as admirers. It is, however, the Gunners who appear to be leading the charge for his signature, and who have seemingly started to prioritise his arrival over that of the widely accepted alternatives.

Interest in Ivan Toney, for instance, has cooled considerably in recent weeks, while transfer guru Fabrizio Romano, stirring from his cryogenic slumber ahead of the summer window, is of the belief that Gyokeres is preferred by many at the Emirates to Napoli talisman Victor Osimhen. Certainly, he would represent a more affordable option.

And a quick doomscroll through the blind alleys of social media seems to suggest that there are plenty in north London who would welcome him with open arms. ‘Who says no?!’, they proclaim alongside dazzling compilation videos soundtracked by copyright-free trap beats; ‘Welcome to Arsenal’, they decry beneath crudely executed Photoshop mock-ups of Gyokeres in the famous red and white.

To a large extent, that palpable yearning is fair enough. Earlier in the season, when Gyokeres was first beginning to run amok for Sporting, there were those - ourselves included - who wondered whether this might turn out to be a flash in the pan purple patch, a hot streak of form that dissipated as swiftly as it came on.

But the months continue to roll by, and the Swede simply does not stop scoring. At this stage, he is fully deserving of the acclaim that he is garnering, and it feels like an increasing inevitability that somebody, somewhere, will take a hefty gamble on him at the end of the campaign. To that end, why shouldn’t it be Arsenal? They need a striker, that much is clear, and if nothing else, their supporters would be very open to the idea of Gyokeres being the one who comes through the door this summer.